Instantly every boy stopped searching and rushed to his side, knowing from the tone in which he spoke that he had made an important discovery.
Chot had worked his way around on his section of the wall until he was beneath the stairs. Here, in a little nook, carefully concealed from the eyes of any who were not making a most thorough search, was a small metal tube projecting several inches from the wall, attached to which was a rubber tube of the same dimensions.
“Sh!” said Chot, as the others gathered about him. “This is a speaking tube, though where it leads I haven’t the slightest idea.”
He put his ear to the end of the tube, and greatly to his surprise, he heard voices.
“Hold still, boys, and I believe our mystery will be a mystery no longer,” he said, in a low tone. “I hear people talking. Let me see if I can catch what they say.”
The voices were evidently some little distance from the other end of the tube but as absolute silence reigned in the basement, Chot could, by straining, catch nearly every word.
“I tell you I will get to that speaking tube,” he heard Bert Creighton say.
There were several exclamations of anger at this, and the sound of a scuffle. Then Chot caught the magic words that unfolded to him at least one of the many mysteries that had been perplexing the boys since their arrival at Winnsocket Lodge.
“You think I don’t know your schemes, but I do,” Bert went on, “and I’m going to inform the authorities on you the first chance I get. You know what the government will do to smugglers.”
“Smugglers!” muttered Chot. “Ah!”